Protect the Marina/Lake

April 6, 2009 - Web Site Links added

Links to the Sylvan Lake Watershed Stewardship Society and an awareness campaign Save Sylvan Lake on the development around Sylvan Lake that threatens water quality, ecosystems and essential fish and wildlife habitat.

March 18, 2009 - Bio-Filter Excavated Again

Another hit on the bio-filter along Highway 11A west of Golf Course Creek. From the images you will notice the bio-filter has not recovered from the excavation of the cattails in the drainage ditch from last March.

Yet again due to potential flooding the ditch was excavated approximately 90 meters in length this spring by the Town of Sylvan Lake. Reduced bio-filter will allow more contaminants from communities and farmland to the west to flow into the marina and the Lake with the spring runoff.

Will there be any restoration of the bio-filter this year by the Town of Sylvan Lake? Stewardship of the Lake rests with all of us.

For more information about the bio-filter desruction from last year please read further down on the page.

Proactive Approach to the Water Quality in the Marina

We all need to take action to protect the water quality in the Marina and subsequently the Lake. A complacent attitude and non proactive stance towards the health of the marina costs everyone money.

Do you realize that "All" the storm drains in Marina Bay empty into the marina. So that means fertilizers, pesticides, chemicals, oils, detergents, pet feces or basically anything that hits the ground in the community of Marina Bay finds its way into the water in the marina! Consider the annual cumulative effect of all the harmful effluent entering the water in the marina. All of us need to rethink and change the way we live by the marina and lake each and every day to improve the water quality in the marina for everyone's continued enjoyment of living beside the Lake.

Obviously, if the marina developed an algae bloom it would prove to be difficult and expensive to resolve. Without our pristine marina our property values could be substantially impacted-negatively by tens of thousands of dollars, if not more.

March 23, 2008 - Town of Sylvan Lake Cleans Up

Town of Sylvan Lake begins the cleanup of the cattails removed by the Summer Village of Norglenwold.

Town of Sylvan Lake Clean Up

March 11, 2008 - Spring Run Off

March 11th images of the beginning of the 2008 spring run off on into Marina Bay has begun can be seen here. Note the color of the water. Also, note the lack of clean up of the cattails that were removed and just piled onto the side of the ditch. Besides being unsightly, decomposing plant material that enters the marina is also a detriment. That is why your leaves should be raked in the fall so the leaves don't blow into the marina and decompose. Decomposing leaves and plant material utilize precious oxygen that is needed to sustain other plant and life in the water.

Silt, phosphates, other chemicals and bacteria are entering the marina from the construction areas through the residential storm drains, residential storm drains south of Marina Bay not to mention the storm drains in Marina Bay has caused nutrient loading to occur in the Marina. This is why the water has turned brown. Almost everything coming into the Marina from any water source stops here. Lovely thought isn't it? The marina is becoming shallower due to siltation and with the combination of the color of the water the water temperature is rising and staying warmer longer.

January 16, 2008 - Bio Filter Destroyed

Silt entering the marina from Golf Course Creek and the silting of the channel to the lake remains a major issue.

Prior to January 16, 2008 Marina Bay has had another set back in regards to the silt issue into Golf Course Creek by the removal of a strip 253 meters long of bio filter (cattails and other vegetation) along the north side of Highway 11A by a contractor hired by the Summer Village of Norglenwold. More....

August 2007 - Blue Green Algae Pigeon Lake

Pigeon Lake experienced a blue-green algae bloom in August and any activity in the Lake was not advised due to the potential health risks.

Here is the latest information about blue-green algae (Cyanobacteria) on the Health Canada web site. Here is an excerpt from the Health Canada web site "Since cyanobacterial bloom formation seems to be linked to nutrient-rich water bodies (for example, water that contains a lot of phosphates from detergents and phosphate fertilizers), the problem is not likely to go away in the near future."